IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,462,320
Granted Patent B2
US 12,462,320 · App. 18/526,971 · Granted Nov 4, 2025

Systems and methods for extending selectable object capability to a captured image

Inventors: Toshiro Ozawa (Irvine, CA); Ning Xu (Irvine, CA); Serhad Doken (Bryn Mawr, PA)
Assignee: Adeia Guides Inc.
G06T1/0021G06T3/40G06T7/70
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,462,320
App. No.
18/526,971
Granted
Nov 4, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatuses are described herein for obtaining an image, wherein the image includes a digital watermark that embeds metadata associated with at least one object in the image, and wherein the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the at least one object in the image. The embedded metadata may be extracted based on the digital watermark. Based on the extracted metadata, a portion of the image corresponding to the location of the at least one object in the image may be caused to be selectable to access supplemental information related to the at least one object.

Claims (68)

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining an image, wherein obtaining the image comprises capturing the image using a camera;

determining that the image is a captured image of content being displayed on a display of a device, wherein the captured image includes a digital watermark that embeds metadata associated with at least one object in the content, and wherein the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the at least one object in the content;

identifying, in the captured image, boundaries of the display;

extracting, based on the digital watermark, the embedded metadata;

based on the extracted metadata and the identified boundaries of the display, determining a location of the at least one object in the captured image; and

based on the extracted metadata, causing a portion of the captured image corresponding to the location of the at least one object in the captured image to be selectable to access supplemental information related to the at least one object.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the at least one object in the captured image further comprises:

projecting, based on the identified boundaries of the display, the captured image to an image depicting a larger portion of the display than the captured image; and

determining the location of the at least one object in the captured image based at least in part on the image depicting the larger portion of the display than the captured image.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the at least one object is a particular object, and the content comprises a plurality of objects including the particular object; and for each respective object of the plurality of objects, a digital watermark embeds metadata at a portion of the content that is in a vicinity of a location of the respective object in the content, and the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the respective object of the plurality of objects; and

extracting the embedded metadata comprises extracting only the embedded metadata associated with the particular object.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the at least one object is a particular object, and the content comprises a plurality of objects including the particular object; and for each respective object of the plurality of objects, a digital watermark embeds metadata at a portion of the content that is in a vicinity of a location of the respective object in the content, and the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the respective object of the plurality of objects; and

the captured image comprises a zoomed-in portion of the content that depicts at least a portion of the particular object and that does not depict the other objects of the plurality of objects included in the content.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

determining the location of the at least one object in the captured image at least in part by:

accessing the supplemental information related to the particular object to determine a type of the particular object; and

performing image processing on the captured image to identify an object that corresponds to the determined type as the particular object.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the metadata further comprises parental control information related to the content;

the content is included in a video, and the captured image is included in a captured recording of the video;

extracting the metadata further comprises extracting the parental control information; and

the method further comprises determining whether to permit playback of the recording of the video based on the extracted parental control information.

7 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying an image comprising at least one object, wherein a portion of the image corresponding to the at least one object is selectable to access supplemental information related to the at least one object; and

modifying the image by applying a digital watermark to the image to cause metadata to be embedded into the image, wherein the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the at least one object in the image, and wherein the modifying of the image is performed prior to encoding the modified image and prior to transmitting or storing the modified image, and wherein modifying the image enables:

extracting, from a captured image of the modified image captured using a camera or based on a screen capture of the modified image, the metadata embedded in the modified image based on the applied digital watermark; and

based on the metadata extracted from the captured image, causing a portion of the captured image corresponding to the at least one object to be selectable to access the supplemental information related to the at least one object.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the metadata further comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) that is selectable to access the supplemental information.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein an indication of the applied digital watermark is not visible in the modified image.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one object is a particular object, and the image comprises a plurality of objects including the particular object, and the method further comprises:

modifying the image by applying a plurality of digital watermarks to the image to cause metadata to be embedded at a plurality of portions the image, wherein for each respective object of the plurality of objects, metadata is embedded at a portion of the image that is in a vicinity of a location of the respective object in the image, and the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the respective object of the plurality of objects.

11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the image is included in a video, and applying the digital watermark to the video further comprises causing at least a portion of the metadata to be embedded in audio information of the video.

12 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

identifying a discrepancy between a portion of the image and information in the supplemental information that is related to the portion of the image; and

based on the identified discrepancy, replacing the portion of the captured image with the information in the supplemental information that is related to the portion of the image.

13 . A system comprising:

input/output circuitry configured to:

obtain an image, wherein obtaining the image comprises capturing the image using a camera;

determine that the image is a captured image of content being displayed on a display of a device, wherein the image includes a digital watermark that embeds metadata associated with at least one object in the content, and wherein the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the at least one object in the content; and

control circuitry configured to:

identify, in the captured image, boundaries of the display;

extract, based on the digital watermark, the embedded metadata;

based on the extracted metadata and the identified boundaries of the display, determine a location of the at least one object in the captured image; and

based on the extracted metadata, cause a portion of the captured image corresponding to the location of the at least one object in the captured image to be selectable to access supplemental information related to the at least one object.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine the location of the at least one object in the captured image by:

projecting, based on the identified boundaries of the display, the captured image to an image depicting a larger portion of the display than the captured image; and

determining the location of the at least one object in the captured image based at least in part on the image depicting the larger portion of the display than the captured image.

15 . The system of claim 13 , wherein:

the at least one object is a particular object, and the content comprises a plurality of objects including the particular object; and for each respective object of the plurality of objects, a digital watermark embeds metadata at a portion of the content that is in a vicinity of a location of the respective object in the content, and the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the respective object of the plurality of objects; and

the control circuitry is configured to extract the embedded metadata by extracting only the embedded metadata associated with the particular object.

16 . The system of claim 13 , wherein:

the at least one object is a particular object, and the content comprises a plurality of objects including the particular object; and for each respective object of the plurality of objects, a digital watermark embeds metadata at a portion of the content that is in a vicinity of a location of the respective object in the content, and the metadata comprises an indication of a location of the respective object of the plurality of objects; and

the captured image comprises a zoomed-in portion of the content that depicts at least a portion of the particular object and that does not depict the other objects of the plurality of objects included in the content.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

determine the location of the at least one object in the captured image at least in part by:

accessing the supplemental information related to the particular object to determine a type of the particular object; and

performing image processing on the captured image to identify an object that corresponds to the determined type as the particular object.

18 . The system of claim 13 , wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to obtain the image by obtaining the captured image of the image using the camera or based on a screen capture;

the metadata further comprises parental control information related to the content image;

the image content is included in a video, and the captured image is included in a captured recording of the video;

the control circuitry is configured to extract the metadata by extracting the parental control information; and

the control circuitry is further configured to determine whether to permit playback of the recording of the video based on the extracted parental control information.

19 . The system of claim 13 , wherein an indication of the applied digital watermark is not visible in the modified image.

20 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the extracted metadata comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) that enables the access the supplemental information related to the at least one object.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 20, 2024
From: OZAWA, TOSHIRO; XU, NING; DOKEN, SERHAD
To: ADEIA GUIDES INC.
Reel/Frame 067783/0009 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20250182234A1 · Jun 5, 2025
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